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The i2Coalition recently hosted a panel on Capitol Hill regarding the critical and impending issues of Privacy legislation in the US and the EU-US Privacy Shield. This was the third of three panels i2Coalition co-hosted with the European eco Association and included senior staffers from Congress, key i2Coalition members, Board Chair of the eco Association, and moderated by our own Frank Stiff, President of Cheval Capital and Board Chair of the i2Coalition. Watch the full video and learn more on the i2Coalition's website.

Key takeaway: Congress is moving toward enacting Privacy legislation that would have far reaching implications for US business, international trade and existing privacy laws such as California’s new privacy law (CCPA) and GDPR. See panel video 29:30 – 36:00 for an overview of what is driving the legislation and where things stand today.

Key takeaway: The EU-US Privacy Shield is a consensual, long-term data protection regime and is a requirement for any business model in which personal data is stored and processed across borders. Without Privacy Shield, it would be illegal to transfer personal data from the EU to the US, crippling Internet services trade between EU and the US. See 10:00 for an overview of Key Privacy Shield Issues Today.

Key takeaway: See 20:00 for two views on why privacy laws are different between the US & EU.

Key takeaway: See 44:30 for the lessons learned from GDPR after a year.

Cheval Capital

Disclaimer: This post is for general information purposes and is not meant to be taken as financial advice, a recommendation to buy or sell the stocks mentioned above, a comprehensive discussion of valuation or how to do the calculations discussed. Please be sure to consult your financial advisors when valuing your company, considering the sale of your business or making other financial decisions.

Author: Hillary Stiff is Managing Director of Cheval Capital. She has been an investment banker and CFO, completing M&A transactions and arranging financing for a number of companies including The Endurance International Group and Web.Com among many others. She has helped complete over 450 successful web hosting, ISP and related transactions and distributes a list of hosting and related companies that are for sale.

David Snead, co-founder of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2C), and I went to Capitol Hill this past week to lobby on Encryption issues.

The good news was that the Feinstein - Burr legislation was generally thought to be ill-conceived and not going to pass in its current form. Given the strength of the comments we heard, I got the sense that they had been getting a lot of negative comments on the legislation from different parts of the debate. Unfortunately, the discussions did indicate there was still room for consideration of similarly troublesome legislation in the future. If you are not up on Feinstein - Burr I recommend this Tech Crunch article.

I think most also recognized that breaking encryption in some manner was not really an option and they wanted to try and find other options to help law enforcement deal with encryption.

In the interesting news camp, there were a number of comments about developing rules to allow the law enforcement, under a valid court order, to hack (or hire hackers to hack) encrypted data.

The concerning news was that despite making comments about how they recognized that breaking encryption was a bad idea, several commented on the need for both sides to compromise. How we compromise without breaking encryption is a mystery and a concern that they don't quite get it.

A final note regarding the i2C. These lobbying trips are one of the great perks of being an i2C member and I encourage folks to join the organization and its fight to minimize disruption from ill-conceived government actions. The current fight on encryption is a hugely important one and I encourage everyone to join in.

The information above and its links are intended as general information only and should not be construed as advice of any kind nor an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to any transaction. Where advice is necessary or appropriate consult with a qualified advisor. Cheval assumes no responsibility for the content of this page or its links nor duty to update them for changes in conditions or circumstances.